HOMER

city, southern Alaska, U.S. It lies on Kenai Peninsula and the northern shore of Kachemak Bay. The city, founded in 1895, was named for Homer Pennock, a prospector in the Cook Inlet area. Homer is situated on a highway connecting Seward and towns in the Cook Inlet area and serves as a trading centre for a vast farming region (dairy products, meat, poultry, eggs, and vegetables). Fishing and coal mining are also important economically. The Winter Carnival (February) and an agricultural fair (August) are annual events. Inc. city, 1964. Pop. (1990) 3,660. flourished 9th or 8th century BC?, Ionia? [now in Turkey] presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although these two great epic poems of ancient Greece have always been attributed to the shadowy figure of Homer, little is known of him beyond the fact that his was the name attached in antiquity by the Greeks themselves to the poems. That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odysseyso much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world's literary artists. He is also one of the most influential authors in the widest sense, for the two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. Indirectly through the medium of Virgil's Aeneid (which was loosely molded after the patterns of the Iliad and the Odyssey), directly through their revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century AD onward, and subsequently through their passage into Italy with the Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then the proliferation of translations has helped to make them the most important poems of the classical European tradition. It was probably through their impact on classical Greek culture itself that the Iliad and the Odyssey most subtly affected Western standards and ideas. The Greeks regarded the great epics as something more than works of literature; they knew much of them by heart, and they valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction. flourished 8th century BC, ?, Ionia? [now in Turkey] presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two greatest epic poems of ancient Greece. Virtually nothing is known about the life of Homer. Scholars generally agree, however, that he was probably an Ionian who lived in the 9th or 8th century BC. In the judgment of most modern scholars, he composed (but probably did not literally write) the Iliad, most likely relying on oral traditions, and he at least inspired the composition of the Odyssey. The Iliad tells the story of the wrath of Achilles (who has been slighted by Agamemnon, the Greek commander in chief) and its disastrous consequences in the Trojan War. The principal action covers the events of only four days in the final year of the war; various preceding episodes relating to the course of the war are described, and a host of characters, human and divine, are presented. The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who after 10 years of wanderings (although the action of the poem is in fact the final six weeks) returns home from the Trojan War. He finds himself recognized only by his faithful dog and a nurse. With the help of his son Telemachus he destroys the importunate suitors of his wife Penelope and reestablishes himself in his kingdom. Ancient Greeks esteemed these epics as symbols of Hellenic unity and heroism and as sources of moral and practical instructions. Since that time the Iliad and the Odyssey have had a profound influence on Western literature and have been translated into modern languages countless times. Their value lies chiefly in the poetry itself, which often moves from sublime passages dealing with gods and heroic exploits to passages expressing deep human emotion. Additional reading Greek text David B. Monro and Thomas W. Allen (eds.), Homeri Opera, vol. 12, Ilias, 3rd ed. (1920, reprinted 1978), and vol. 34, Odyssea, 2nd ed. (1916, reprinted 197579). Translations The best close modern translations are Richmond Lattimore (trans.), The Iliad of Homer (1951, reprinted 1976), and The Odyssey of Homer (1967, reprinted 1975); and Walter Shewring (trans.), The Odyssey (1980). A loose but powerful contemporary verse translation is Robert Fitzgerald (trans.), The Iliad (1974, reissued 1984). Commentaries G.S. Kirk (ed.), The Iliad, a Commentary (1985 ), the first of a projected six-volume series; M.M. Willcock (ed.), The Iliad of Homer, Books IXII (1978), and The Iliad of Homer, Books XIIIXXIV (1984); and W.B. Stanford (ed.), Omhrou Odusseia: The Odyssey of Homer, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (195859, reissued 197374). See also the Italian commentaries on the Odyssey by S. West (Books 14), J.B. Hainsworth (Books 58), A. Heubeck (Books 912), and A. Hoekstra (Books 1316) (198184). Critical studies W.A. Camps, An Introduction to Homer (1980); Jasper Griffin, Homer (1980), an introduction for the general reader, and Homer on Life and Death (1980, reprinted 1983); Howard Clarke, Homer's Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey (1981); Norman Austin, Archery at the Dark of the Moon: Poetic Problems in Homer's Odyssey (1975); James M. Redfield, Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector (1975); M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus, 2nd rev. ed. (1977, reissued 1982);G.S. Kirk, The Songs of Homer (1962, reprinted 1977), abbreviated as Homer and the Epic (1965, reprinted 1974); G.S. Kirk (ed.), The Language and Background of Homer: Some Recent Studies and Controversies (1964, reissued 1967); Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (1960, reissued 1978); Paul Mazon, Introduction l'Iliade (1943, reprinted 1967); Denys L. Page, History and the Homeric Iliad (1959), and The Homeric Odyssey (1955, reprinted 1976); Milman Parry, L'pithte traditionnelle dans Homre (1928); Alan J.B. Wace and Frank H. Stubbings (eds.), A Companion to Homer (1962, reprinted 1974); T.B.L. Webster, From Mycenae to Homer (1958, reprinted 1977); and W.J. Woodhouse, The Composition of Homer's Odyssey (1930, reprinted 1969). Allied studies John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1970); M.I. Finley, Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages, rev. ed. (1981); and Lord William Taylour, The Mycenaeans, rev. ed. (1983). Geoffrey S. Kirk